On-site Composting

On-site composting is one of the ways to recycle your food waste and garden waste into a new product used for farming and gardening. Because the on-site composting type doesn’t require hard techniques and large size of the pile, it is widely used at home. Plus, this type is also available for households that don’t have a large backyard, therefore, with an old bin, a tumbler or a container, waste and garbage are ready to turn into treasure.

Types of materials – There are a variety of waste can be used as materials for the on-site composting, found in your bin. From the kitchen scraps, they can be cooked and uncooked fruits and vegetables, coffee ground, eggshells, and nutshells. Others can be collected from the garden such as lawn clippings, dead leaves, and branches, even cardboard and papers are those you can bring your home to turn them into treasure. However, to help your pile completely decomposed, the combination of the amount of brown materials and green materials should be added in moderation.

Considerations – Because this method is often used for small size of pile, and the process will be happening in the compost bin, the climate and seasonal factors don’t affect much the composting process. However, it doesn’t mean you needn’t take any considerations about it, the place for placing your bin should be on the shady and dry spots. Plus, the waste from glass and metal should be taken out of the bin.

Time of processing – The composting process might take you 1 – 2 years to complete, but if you periodically turn over the pile during the processing, the time of a finished compost can reduce within three to 6 months.

Vermicomposting

Vermicomposting is a method of decomposing your organic matters by the help of various worms. Some useful worms like red wigglers, white worms, and other earthworms are added into the pile of brown and green materials, and then these worms will eat the materials and create a new product called compost used for farming and gardening.

Types of materials – The materials used for vermicomposting aren’t different from those used for other types of composting, which means they should be included both of carbon materials, also known as brown materials like straws, dead leaves, eggshells and nitrogen-materials, which comes from green materials like banana peels, lawn clippings and vegetable waste. Also, the ones who eat and digest these materials are worms, often red wigglers, white worms and some other earthworms are the ideal ones. Plus, water and oxygen are other important materials.

Considerations – A number of worms can be less than a number of organic materials, but higher amount of high-carbon materials is encouraged because it can reduce the high heat leading to harm worms. Also, ensure the worms chosen aren’t night crawlers. In addition, before adding worms, the layer of brown materials or green materials should should be thoroughly moistened by adding a moderate amount of water. Plus, during the processing, the heat needs to be regularly checked so that worms have a good environment to survive because high temperatures inside the pile might kill them, often keep the temperature staying under 30 °C (86 °F) of the temperature are ideal.

Time of processing – It doesn’t take you a long time to wait for a vermicomposting process ready to use, just from 1 – 3 months of composting, all the organic materials are turned into organic fertilizer, which means it saves time and effort.

Windrow Composting

Wind-row composting is the common method used as large-scale composting in farming because this method requires you have a large size of site on which you can pill the mixture of organic materials into long narrow piles called wind-rows. Most of wind-rows are set up outside, but sometimes built in shelters and aerated by the help of machines.

Types of materials – Farming wastes like animal manure and crop residues can become the great sources for composting. Hence, the ingredients for making a windrow compost pile are unlimited.

Considerations – Building wind-row compost piles isn’t a difficult job but needing to be done properly, which determines the sucess of composting process for the best quality compost and speeds up the time for finished compost, which means too-thin pile will take it longer time to finish but too-thick pile will cause it release odors due to lack of aeration, Hence, to ensure the pile is good enough for keeping heat during processing, the pile should be set up within 12-feet wide and 3-feet high. In addition, if the pile contains manure, it should be shredded thinner than layers of the remaining materials. Plus, the pile shoud be periodically turned over, in the rainy seasons the turning should be done every month. Plus, when the piles reach their peak heat, the piles can reach the temperature of 55°C (131°F) in the core.

Time of processing – The time for finishing the wind-row compost piles varies a bit depending on the thickness of the pile, but one – two years is an average time of wind-row composting process.

In-vessel composting

In-vessel composting method is a combination of various types of composting, which can produce a large size of compost but less downside than others. However, the processing of the in-vessel composting type isn’t undergone so simply as done in other types because it is built in a system of machines and electrical equipments, therefore, the aeration, temperature adjustments, and turning skills are professionally done.

Types of materials – All types of waste included brown materials and green materials found in household bins or farming fields, other can come from industrial waste can be collected and turn into compost.

Considerations – The in-vessel composting requires a system of machines and electrical equipments, which means more expense to be used for the process of composting. Also, the managements for proper temperature, aeration and turning in each stage must be done carefully, therefore, more attention and skills need to pay by experts during processing. Plus, the amount of organic materials used in in-vessel composting is often in a large size, which means only household waste isn’t enough to recycle.

Time of processing – The in-vessel composting process doesn’t last long to be finished, often in several weeks.

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